The field of the invention is generally that of recording the rate of sales for dispensing and vending apparatus for dispensing newspaper and other similar publications or the like and more specifically an apparatus to determine the last sale or other useful information.
When selling newspapers in newspaper vending machines, running out of newspapers is a long-standing problem. Typically the vendor feels that more newspapers could have been sold, which would result in more income. Therefore, the next day more newspapers are left in the newspaper vending machine to cover the previous days shortage. The vendor has very little data upon which to base his decision. If the vendor leaves only one more paper when many more could be sold, he reduces his income. Also, if he leaves many extra newspapers the next day when only one was required, he may again reduce his income.
Newspaper vendors guess at the required amount of newspapers to leave in the newspaper vending machines each day. If all the newspapers were sold, the vendor will usually leave a few extra each day until unsold newspapers exist. If more than one or two are unsold, the vendor will leave less the next day. The vendor guesses at the amount to leave because the vendor does not know at what time the last paper was sold. They operate by rule of thumb.